{"id":2753,"date":"2014-11-30T09:18:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T09:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/?p=2753"},"modified":"2014-11-30T09:18:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T09:18:03","slug":"back-heathrows-methods-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/?p=2753","title":{"rendered":"Back Heathrow’s methods exposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The method’s of the controversial pro-expansion group Back Heathrow have been exposed in the Sunday Times (30\/11\/14)<\/strong><\/p>\n

“HEATHROW came under fire from senior politicians and environmentalists this weekend after bankrolling a community campaign group that claims to represent the \u201csilent majority\u201d who want a third runway at the airport.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of homes in London have received a series of glossy newsletters and surveys from Back Heathrow, a group that says it is \u201cbuilding a community of support for Heathrow airport\u201d.<\/p>\n

Designed like a tabloid newspaper, the leaflets include stark warnings that \u201c114,000 jobs are at risk if Heathrow shuts down\u201d. Three of the four newsletters delivered during the past year fail to disclose that Back Heathrow is funded by the airport.<\/p>\n

Critics claim the group is a version of an aggressive lobbying tactic called \u201castroturfing\u201d \u2014 when a movement is portrayed as a grassroots initiative but is actually run on behalf of corporate interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is straight out of Big Tobacco and anti-climatechange-type strategies where you simply scaremonger through an \u2018astroturf\u2019 group that you set up and fund at arm\u2019s length,\u201d said Jeff Gazzard, a spokesman for the pressure group Aviation Environment Federation.<\/p>\n

Back Heathrow denied it was a front for the airport and Heathrow said it had \u201calways been transparent\u201d about the fact it helped fund the group.<\/p>\n

The most recent newsletter, which was delivered to up to 750,000 homes, claimed more than 50,000 residents were supporting Back Heathrow\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople from all ages and walks of life are joining Back Heathrow and this silent majority is beginning to have its voice heard,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Back Heathrow\u2019s campaign co-ordinator, Rob Gray, is a former director of the Aviation Foundation, a lobbying group established by the industry.<\/p>\n

He set up Back Heathrow as a limited company in July 2013 with Nathan Fletcher, a senior PR officer at the airport. Fletcher, who is now Heathrow\u2019s head of news, resigned as a director in April.<\/p>\n

Michael Appleton, Back Heathrow\u2019s communications manager, is a former communications officer at the airport.<\/p>\n

Gray refused to reveal how much funding Back Heathrow had received from the airport, saying only that it was more than \u00a3100,000. He said the group had also received a donation from Heathrow Hub, a group that has submitted a rival plan to expand the airport, as well as smaller donations from residents and businesses.<\/p>\n

Matthew Gorman, the airport\u2019s director of sustainability and environment, was questioned about Heathrow\u2019s support for the group during a heated meeting last Thursday of around 150 residents in Putney, southwest London.<\/p>\n

Gorman insisted the airport had been \u201cvery open\u201d that it had \u201cprovided some funding to set Back Heathrow up and we continue to provide some funding\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by The Sunday Times after the meeting how much funding the airport had provided, he replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly.\u201d He then refused to answer further questions.<\/p>\n

Justine Greening, the Conservative cabinet minister and MP for Putney, accused Back Heathrow of \u201cmaking out that they are some sort of residents\u2019 group\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ravi Govindia, the Tory leader of Wandsworth council, said Heathrow was not being \u201copen\u201d about its relationship with the group, and Ray Puddifoot, the Hillingdon council leader, who has been criticised in Back Heathrow\u2019s literature, said his local authority regarded the airport with \u201cdisdain because of the tactics that they are using\u201d.<\/p>\n

Back Heathrow states on its website that it was \u201cinitially launched\u201d with money from the airport but does not admit it continues to receive donations.<\/p>\n

One of its leaflets, delivered in September last year, discloses it is \u201csupported and financed\u201d by Heathrow.<\/p>\n

Gray said: \u201cThe uncomfortable truth for those opposed to Heathrow expansion is that the levels of support we have attracted from residents reflect what almost all independent polls show \u2014 that there is majority support in local areas for growth at the UK\u2019s hub airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Heathrow spokeswoman said the airport \u201ccontinued efforts to give a voice to those who had previously not been heard in the debate on the airport\u2019s future\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The method’s of the controversial pro-expansion group Back Heathrow have been exposed in the Sunday Times (30\/11\/14) “HEATHROW came under fire from senior politicians and environmentalists this weekend after bankrolling a community campaign group that claims to represent the \u201csilent majority\u201d who want a third runway at the airport. Hundreds of thousands of homes in … Continue reading “Back Heathrow’s methods exposed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}